Brittany Force turned heads Friday night at the NHRA Carolina Nationals in Charlotte, stopping the clocks at 3.690 seconds, 334.24 mph to grab the provisional No. 1 qualifying position.

Force, driving the HendrickCars.com dragster, recorded her top time in Q2 at zMAX Dragway.

If Force’s time holds it would be her second of the season to go with the two she captured in Pomona, Calif., and Indianapolis. If she can hang on to No. 1 through Saturday’s two qualifying sessions, it would be her 49th time leading the field into eliminations.

“To end qualifying with two solid runs, we picked up points, and we're currently No. 1, our Monster energy team, HendrickCars.com. We're all very excited. We're very proud of that, John Force Racing, we're all pumped. We all did pretty good,” Force said.

“Mindset for [Saturday] is what it was coming in [Friday]. We want to do exactly what we accomplished today. We want to focus one round at a time. We want to pick up points where we can. [Saturday’s] going to be conditions – we're running, I think, at 1 p.m. and 3:30 or 1 p.m. and 4 [Eastern] – so track temps are going to be quite a bit different, and we got to figure that track out for Sunday.”

Force, a two-time Top Fuel world champion in 2017 and ’22, has struggled most of this season. She entered Charlotte ninth in the points standings, 133 behind leader Justin Ashley.

“We had a little chat, actually, before coming into the run,” Force said about talking to crew chief David Grubnic. “I haven't spoken to him yet. Very briefly, he came in and grabbed a time slip and patted me on the back and took off. So, we'll talk in a little bit, but we were right in our window, right where we wanted to run. I tried to look at the scoreboard when we flew by, but couldn't make it out. They came on the radio, couldn't make out anything they were saying, so I didn't know until I got to the top end. But I was pumped because I felt this was a killer run. I felt like it was good. Sometimes as a driver, you can just feel it, and I knew it was good. And they said ‘69,’ and I knew we were solid.”

Force is searching for her first win this season with her best outings of the year being four semifinal appearances. Force clocked a solid 3.721-second ET at 335.73 mph to lead the way in Q1. 

“With our season and where we've been, I don't want to get a big head over it. We want to just focus,” Force said. “We're very proud of what we've done, what we've accomplished just [Friday night], but that's just day one here at zMAX. We have to do well [Saturday], and really, we have to dominate on Sunday. That's where it really matters. … Just looking at our runs [Friday night] going into [Saturday], we want to keep that No. 1. And we saw people, we saw some of the runs out ahead of us, and we did lose [No. 1 temporarily], didn't we?  

“I did see it on the board, so sitting there, it was just like, ‘Ah, crap, we lost it, but we're still sitting here. We still have a shot to chase it down.’ So, I felt confident. Again, talked to Grubnic. I knew what he was aiming for, and Grubnic's pretty good. When he wants to push hard and try to put a number up, he usually can always pull that off. And we weren't playing scared. We were pushing. We had every chance to, because we solidly in the show. We knew we were going to push, see what we could get away with, and we did.”

She doesn’t have to look far to see someone who went from the back of the standings in the Countdown to become a world champion. Her teammate Robert Hight won the nitro Funny Car world championship in 2009 after starting the Countdown in the No. 10 spot.

“When the points, everything reset and we barely made it in. We were 10, moved to No. 9,” Force said. “So, we're right there at the bottom, but points reset so it's anybody's game. That's the great thing about this Countdown. I've been on both ends of it. I've been on the side where we were out ahead all season long, and I was on the other side of it where we just really did well in the Countdown when it mattered. I've been on both sides of it. My opinion changes on which way I like better or not depending on where we're currently at. So, this year, I'm all for the Countdown, the points resetting. …

“That's a great example, looking at what Robert did that year,” she said of Hight’s 2009 accomplishment. “And our team, that same year, we won from the No. 6 position. It's anyone's game, and that's what's so great about it. Like I said, we came [into zMAX at] No. 9. It's not over yet, or they would've crowned who it was, and it's anyone's game still. It's anyone's shot. If we went out and won the next handful of races, we'd move right up there. So that's what we're banking on. That's what we're aiming for.”